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Taking risks with paint

No hefty budget needed, paint is the single more transformative and cheapest thing you can do to any room, EVER. I never quite understand why so many people are so scared of it. If you hate it you can change it up again pretty quickly. I’ve painted walls aubergine, teal, a lilac-y grey, a funny kind of tan even – none of which quite worked in the rooms I tried. Has it put me off paint? Nope. It’s been a bit of a pain in the ass returning it back, but in the general scheme of things going wrong has then always led on to better things.

I gravitate towards inky, swampy bottom of the lake type hues, which we all know by now! But for today’s post I wanted to push it even further with some bold brights. Now I realise many of us won’t be going down this route for walls, but I think when we open our eyes up to really zingy colour, even if we use it in smaller ways, it will instantly give our pads more pizzazz. I don’t apply brights to my walls generally speaking, but looking at the pics in the slideshow I wonder if maybe I should dabble with them in the guest rooms. What these photos remind me is how intoxicating colour is, in small ways or big, and when you restrain that palette to only a few hues it feels so much more impactful. Hear hear to that.

Here in a nutshell are my 5 ultimate tips for dealing with bold colours:

If you’re painting walls out in a bright bold colour, select upholstery and accessories in a similar hue – the room will feel far more cohesive that way.

You don’t need to commit to painting the walls bold to have a colourful room. Accessories can pack the same punch.

Never choose colours based on paint chips alone. Paint big (I mean really big!) swatches of the hue onto the walls first, it will give you a far better idea of what it’s going to look like!

One of the best spots to dip your toes into colour is the hallway or landings. Not too big a commitment, and can be easily changed back if it doesn’t work.

When using brights, offset them with some gorgeous neutrals, it keeps it all balanced and not crazy.

6 Responses

1. Curiosity —- You find yourself looking at Abigail Ahern’s website, lusting over dark rooms in Pinterest and, Googling ‘dark rooms’.
2. Consideration — suddenly you realise you’re actually considering going ahead. The idea won’t go away and you start to narrow down paint colours.
3. Confession — you fess up your dark desires to family and friends, who throw their hands in the air in horror and say; ‘It’ll be depressing. It’ll be like living in a cave. You’ll end up killing yourself and those around you’, etc.
4. Concern — you were so sure, but now their words shake your resolution and you have doubts.
5. Clarity — balls to them. You suddenly know with complete conviction that it’s going to look fab and, anyway, it can always be repainted if it’s awful.
6. Consternation — as the first dark coat goes on, obliterating all your whites and creams with each stroke, panic starts to rise and you have a horrible feeling you’ve made a horrendous error. You plough on regardless and hope for the best.
7. Celebration — and utter joy after the second coat is dry at just how wonderful and classy your room now looks. Unable to tear yourself away – everybody now accepts it looks great, all your other rooms now look boring and flaccid in comparison.

I’ve always painted in bold colour or used bright wallpaper. The boldest I went was red, I mean pillar box red, bright, deep, bold, right in your face red on my stairs and landing! As my front door opens onto my stairs, it was always interesting watching the expression on people’s faces when I opened the door! I did mix it up using a collection of black and white cards with movie scenes like Barbarella, Psycho and The Great Escape, which I put in black frames with a white border then hung them either side of the stairs top to bottom. I popped a big yucca plant in a black pot at the top of the stairs where it turned onto the landing (it was a bit in the way but I thought it worked well so what’s a little inconvenience?!).

I wallpapered it in a brown pattern years ago and now considering what next to do with it – it will NOT be wallpaper – I have steep stairs – wallpapering with a big pattern is a royal pain in the butt!

I love your thoughts on colour Abigail.
As an artist I feel an instant rush when presented with a pot of paint and a wall to put it on. A bright colour is one of the joys of life, and even a bigger joy when it’s next to something nondescript.
p.s. I have been known to buy sample pots of paints just because they’re such yummy colours.